Chains of Mist
by BlazingRagnarok
Summary: A murder mystery set in Magnolia. When the body of a young woman turns up, it is up to Lucy to solve the crime and stop the Magic Council from using this murder to shut down the guild forever. Rated T for later action violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, BlazingRagnarok here. This is my very first piece of fanfiction, so I would really appreciate constructive responses to this fic. Note: this particular FT fic is set before the Tenrou Arc timeskip, after the Edolas Arc. However, not being caught up in FT does not mean that you will be unable to enjoy this fic.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I do not think that this would protect me from any sort of legal action, but I would like to say that I respect Hiro Mashima and all of his work.**

A thick layer of fog hung over Magnolia, throwing a cloud of silence over the normally bustling town. In one nearly deserted street in one of the corners of the town, a young woman wearing a fine ball gown ran desperately through the mist. As she ran, she glanced left, then right, then behind her, as if expecting some hidden figure to come barreling through the wall of fog after her. She did not plan to wander into this part of town, but she had lost her way, absorbed in thinking about her handsome date from the party she had just left. She was led away from her friends by the oddly mood-setting weather.

Her frantic flight was pursued by a haunting song, sung by an unseen woman in a bizarre gurgling voice, the lyrics impossible to make out. For reason that she could not comprehend, this melody terrified her beyond reason. Eventually the girl came to an abandoned market square, a desolate, lonely place, and stopped running, gasping for breath. Peering through the mist, the song still in the poor girl's ears, she could make out the willowy shape of a woman. As she crept toward the figure, the song grew louder, confirming that this silhouette was the source of the music. Unbeknownst to the woman, the fog behind her solidified into a wall of water, taller than the buildings in that abandoned district. Suddenly, just as the young woman was about to reach the singer, the wall of water lashed out, capturing the girl in its crushing, airless grip. As the water filled her lungs and she was beginning to black out, the girl finally heard the song's lyrics:

_The great winding lord_

_His body crumpled_

_Lies bound in chains of mist and blood and treason_

_Forced into an adamant slumber_

_But now_

_The great lord stirs_

_From his deep sleep in his deep bed_

_His chains weaken_

_Mist dissolves mist_

_Blood dissolves blood_

_Treason dissolves treason_

_Bow to him, behold him in his infinite glory_

_Amen_

* * *

Lucy hummed cheerfully as she walked towards her home from her latest mission, balancing on the wall separating the road from the river while ignoring the usual warning from the fishermen about falling into the water. Plue walked at her side, attempting to mimic her humming, but only succeeding in saying, "Pmmm! Pmmm!"

"Can you believe this Plue? I finally made my rent this month!" Lucy said to her companion,"and I didn't even need Natsu's help this time!" She approached her door, noticed that it was slightly ajar, then sighed. "Speak of the devil," Lucy said, "wouldn't it kill them to knock?" She entered her room, then jumped back in surprise, as her uninvited houseguest was not the usual Natsu and Happy duo, but rather Juvia.

Juvia looked at Lucy. "Hello, romantic rival," she greeted her.

"I am not your rival, I'm your friend," Lucy reminded her, "Why are you here? Did you follow Gray in?"

"No, Juvia is alone, and needs your help," she replied, "you see, Juvia has been framed for murder!"

Lucy stared in shock. "Murder!" she said, "I think I need a few more details here."

Juvia replied, saying, "Early this morning a young woman was found dead in a deserted part of town. She wouldn't have been noticed, due to the weather, but for the pool of water that surrounded the body. The body was autopsied and it was determined that the cause of death was drowning and that magic was involved."

"How do you know all of this?" Lucy asked.

"Gray told Juvia. Apparently he knew the victim and he was asking the local police what happened. The bad part is that the Magic Council has shown up and taken over the investigation! Gray was worried that they would try to pin the murder on Juvia and Fairy Tail."

"Well, I'm flattered that I was the first person you asked for help," Lucy said, smiling.

Juvia frowned and said, "You are not the first. Gray and Erza have been taken in for questioning, Gajeel refused, Cana's hung over, Natsu's on a mission..." Juvia continued on for several minutes, detailing how almost every member of Fairy Tail was absent or unwilling to help, "...Mystogan left, and Laxus got ousted. That leaves you."

"Gee...thanks," Lucy said dryly, "what do you want me to do?"

"Kill the witnesses and destroy the evidence. Then, you can take the fall and go to jail for Juvia," Juvia said.

"Umm...no," Lucy said, starting to lose patience with Juvia's attitude towards her, "besides, I thought we were supposed to thwart a framing, not cover up an actual crime. How about speaking to Master Makarov? That's a plan that is legal and has the bonus of not being nuttier than a sack of pistachios."

**So? How did I do on my first try? Review please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to the followers, its people like you that make writing stories possible. Additional thanks to Potter4me for being my beta reader for this chapter and last chapter. Still hoping for reviews, even though a story like this can't be evaluated at this point.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. No $#!& Sherlock.**

As Lucy and Juvia stepped out into the mist outside of Lucy's home, Lucy turned to her companion and asked, "Umm...about that comment you made back there–the one about killing witnesses. Were you serious? That doesn't seem like you."

Juvia turned to Lucy, smiled, and replied, "No, of course not. That was a joke that Juvia told back when Juvia was in Phantom Lord. It always got a lot of laughs."

Lucy winced. "I can see why it did. That makes sense," she said. As the pair walked down the street toward the guild hall, the fog around them seemed to thicken, their visibility decreasing enough to make it difficult to make out the buildings on the sides of the street. Additionally, there did not seem to be anybody on the street. Well, this dreary weather _did_ make one want to spend the day at home in bed, Lucy thought, but there was something else that she could not quite place. Some kind of song...

"Is it just me or was it easier to see earlier in the day?" Lucy asked Juvia. Juvia nodded. "And that noise," Lucy added.

"Yes, Juvia can hear something"

"A song?"

"No, footsteps." As it happened, Lucy heard a greater noise that drowned out the song, the sound of a large number of people marching in unison. Eventually, a group of soldiers marched out of the thick fog, creating the sense that this was a ghostly army, coming out of the mist to wreak vengeance against some ancient foe. Yet, these soldiers were not ghosts, as Lucy recognized the blue and white livery of the Magic Council's Rune Knight enforcers. At the head of this force was a familiar face, Captain Lahar, who Lucy recognized as the man sent to clean up in the wake of the Nirvana incident.

"Ah, Ms. Heartfilia, we were looking for you. Although, we expected you to be a little closer to your house," the stern law keeper said.

Lucy's eyes widened in surprise, and she said, "But we just left my house! We should only be..." As Lucy was speaking, the fog around them cleared up somewhat. As she examined her surroundings, Lucy determined that they where on the other side of Magnolia from her house. In fact, if she walked home in a straight line from her current position, she would have gone _through_ the guild hall. "The mist. It must have messed with our heads," Lucy said, greatly confused.

"This fog could be dangerous, considering that there is a killer on the loose. Actually, the murder is one of the reasons we came to find you," Lahar said. That can't be the only reason, Lucy thought glumly. They probably wanted to have all of Fairy Tail in one place.

"You clearly expected Lucy to be by her house," Juvia said, "so how did you find us all the way out here?"

"Some of my men cast a spell that allowed us to track you by your guild marking, with Master Makarov's approval, of course," Lahar replied.

"Hey, I just got an idea," Lucy said, "could the killer be a wizard using this strange fog?"

"It's quite possible that the killer is a magic-user. That, or some kind of magical orangutan," Lahar replied sarcastically.

"Orangutan?" Lucy asked, puzzled.

As if just realizing what words came out of his mouth, Lahar's face turned bright red. "Enough! We will finish this conversation back at the guild hall," he said, and the group set off for the Fairy Tail guild hall.

The fog did not return during their short trip, and they arrived without incident. When they got to the guild hall, Lucy saw that the Council's forces had set up several tents in the courtyard, probably some kind of base. In front of the main doors, Lucy could see Makarov arguing loudly with one of the Rune Knights about the placement of the tents. "I understand that you people need to have a base camp somewhere, but why in the world do you have to do it here?" the diminutive old man shouted, his face slowly going through every color of the rainbow (Lucy didn't know whether it was his anger or some kind of magical experiment that went awry). Lahar walked up to Makarov and said, "Please calm down. I know that this is bothering you, but there is a good reason for all of this."

"I don't care what kind of 'good' reasons your superiors gave you for this," Makarov snarled back, his face turning a brilliant orange, "I just know in my gut that they ordered you to do this to get under my skin."

"Actually, this building is almost certainly the safest part of town. It would do us well to be protected from any orangutans that might attack," Lahar shot back.

"Orangutans?" Makarov's face turned a confused shade of yellow. Clearly this man had some kind of bad...experience...with those particular primates in the past, Lucy thought. To her realization, she did not care in the slightest about the past of this stuck-up dog of the Council. She hoped Lahar wouldn't mention them again.

"That is...err...killers, I mean," Lahar said, flustered, "Besides, the more you cooperate, the faster we leave. Hopefully this case should be solved within the week," he continued, placating the enraged old man.

"Oh, all right. I still can't see why you couldn't have picked the _second_ safest spot in the city," Makarov said, finally calming down. Despite this, the colors of his face continued to change (Lucy being Lucy, she took this long to figure out that, yes, this was due to magic).

As they entered the guild hall, Lucy noticed that most of the guild was present. The group of Rune Knights split, with Lucy, Lahar, and Makarov, and half of the soldiers headed in one direction, towards the guild master's chambers and the rest going with Juvia in another direction, towards some of the other private rooms. "Where are you taking her?" Lucy asked.

"We are preparing to question her, along with the other witnesses and suspects. I hoped even _you_ would realize that," Lahar replied. Hurt by the treatment that she had been receiving throughout the day (Even by the narrator!) Lucy sulked the rest of the way to Makarov's chambers.

"Is the council willing to hold to the agreement that we made before your arrival?" Makarov asked.

"Yes, of course. That is the reason that I brought Ms. Heartfilia to your chambers with us," Lahar replied.

Lucy looked up from her sulk, confused. "Wait, what?" she asked.

Lahar closed the door to Makarov's room behind them, then he turned to Lucy and said, "The council is well aware of how little Fairy Tail trusts us. To ensure cooperation, lessen the risk of foul play, and ameliorate the tension between us, the council and Master Makarov have agreed to decide that one member of Fairy Tail would aid us directly in the investigation. The member that both parties has found satisfactory was you, Lucy Heartfilia. It is quite an honor." Lucy had a sinking feeling that her participation was not quite as honorable as Lahar made it seem.

**Thanks for reading this chapter. I'm sorry if this chapter seemed like not a lot happened. I promise that the plot will pick up next time, for sure!**

**Challenge****: Can anybody recognize which famous American writer I took the orangutan idea from? Winner gets...uh...a shout-out. Also, polite applause for your literary knowlege. Or use of Google. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! New chapter here. Finally getting past all of the intro crap to the good stuff (Like a chocolate-filled muffin). Thanks to all of my followers and to Coolkat88 for the review.**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is not mine. Sorry.**

Natsu and Wendy, held aloft by Happy and Carla respectively, surveyed Magnolia's skyline. Despite the fact that there wasn't a cloud in the sky above them, the city was filled with very dense fog. The cloud of mist was at least thirty miles (48 km) wide, easily enough to cover all of Magnolia and much of the surrounding area. It made it seem as if the dragon slayers and exceeds**(1)** were miles above Earthland's surface, instead of their actual altitude of several hundred feet. "Oh, wow. It's almost impossible to see into the city from all the way up here," Wendy said.

Natsu looked across the horizon and said, "These cloud look kinda like cotton candy. I wonder if they taste good."

"You can't eat clouds! They're made of water vapor and dust," Carla scolded him.

"But these are _magical_ clouds," Happy said, "Actually, they look more like an ocean than cotton candy. I wonder if there's any fish to be caught," Happy licked his chops as he said this, "Look, there seems to be waves in this fog. I can even see a whirlpool."

The other three looked at Happy and cried out in unison, "A _whirlpool_?!" Indeed, as they flew closer to where Happy was looking there did seem to be a spinning mass of fog at one location over the city.

"Do you guys know where over the city we are?" Wendy asked. The others shook their heads. As they drew closer, they began to make out a few details about the "whirlpool." For one, it was large, almost one-hundred feet (30 m) in diameter. Another interesting detail was that there was a sphere of some sort in the center. At the sphere, water was condensing to form water, making for a spinning, water globe atop the clouds. Unfortunately, there were high speed winds above the spinning area and its vicinity that increased towards the center, so the group's approach became steadily more treacherous as they grew closer to the sphere. Even with Vernier**(2)** from Wendy and Aera**(3)** at maximum speed the going was slow. About halfway in they began to make out a dark, blurry form in the center of the sphere.

Suddenly, a watery projectile lashed out of the sphere in Natsu and Happy's direction. Happy attempted to dodge, but the wind interfered with his ability to evade. The projectile clipped Happy's left wing, sending him spiraling out of the maelstrom and Natsu plummeting through the layer of fog...

* * *

"So, um, how exactly would I participate in this investigation?" Lucy asked nervously, quite surprised by Lahar's announcement.

"You will, in short, be privy to any and all information in relation to this case. Additionally, you will accompany the head of the investigation–that is, me–to any interrogations, interviews, crime scenes, and autopsies. You will expected to provide a meaningful contribution to this investigation, up to and including the capture of suspects, if applicable. You are not to share the information that we gather to anybody except Master Makarov, unless you receive permission from me," Lahar replied. He took a folder from off of Makarov's desk and handed it to Lucy, then he said, "This file contains all relevant information that we have collected so far about the victim and the crime scene. Read it, then one of my men waiting outside will accompany you to the interrogation from to help question Gray Fullbuster. Is all of that clear?"

Despite not having fully absorbed the information that Lahar gave her, Lucy nodded. Then, Lahar handed her the folder and walked out of the room. "Wow, all of that without mentioning orangutans once," Lucy said. She was so overwhelmed by the responsibility placed on her shoulders that she could only think about Lahar's silly orangutan comments.

From the back of the room, Makarov cracked a smile. "You'll do fine," he said, seeming to sense Lucy's mood. "Do you have any idea why you are the Fairy Tail member that we agreed on?"

"The Magic Council probably doesn't think highly of my abilities," Lucy replied.

Makarov's smile disappeared, and he said, "The Council thinks you weak and easy to manipulate. I think that they are severely underestimating you. You should start reading that folder. I'm trusting you to clear our guild's name; nobody here would willfully commit murder." Makarov then left his room, leaving Lucy alone with the folder. Lucy opened it and peered at its contents.

**Victim Data**

Name: Silvia Markester

Age: 17

Height: 5'4" (162 cm)

Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)

Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Race: White

Notes: Only daughter of a moderately wealthy merchant family. Friends since childhood with Clarice Sturm, whose 17th birthday party she attended the night of her death. Had trouble making friends, especially with boys.

**Crime Scene Data**

Location: market square at the end of Meld Street. Abandoned since fire of X779**(4)**, five years prior.

Victim Location: center of market square, face down in a pool of water.

Time of discovery: 11:48 P.M., by a group from the party.

**Autopsy Data**

Estimated time of death range: 11:30-11:45 P.M.

External injuries: none

Internal injuries: ruptured lungs and stomach

Cause of death: drowning

Magical involvement? Yes

Notes: Water found inside the chest cavity. Lung and stomach ruptures most likely due to water being forced down the throat at high pressures.

Lucy finished reading and shut the folder. Well, that was an excruciatingly boring dump of information, she thought. She stood up and walked out of the room, taking the folder with her. Lucy hoped that they would let her keep it because she didn't think that she could remember all of that information without having to double-check.

The soldier outside the door led her to one of the private rooms in the opposite wing of the guild hall, where she found Lahar and Gray waiting for her, sitting at opposite ends of a table in the middle of the room. There was an extra chair next to Lahar, in which Lucy took her seat. As she sat down, Lucy noticed that there was a lacrima floating in the corner of the room, almost certainly meant to record what will transpire within the room. Other than the lacrima, the table, the chairs, and three wizards, the room was bare.

Lahar pulled a notepad, and inkpot, and a quill out from one of his pockets. He turned to Lucy and said, "Ah, excellent, we can begin the interrogation now. Do you fully understand the contents of that folder?"

"Well, I read over it, but I would like to keep the folder," Lucy replied.

Lahar nodded, then turned to Gray and said, "Now, Mr. Fullbuster, is it true that you are the last person to ever see the victim, Ms. Markester, alive?"

"Yes."

"Could you please tell your account of the events prior to her death, starting from yesterday morning?"

**Thank you for reading this latest chapter of my fic. For the record, I pulled those numbers out of my arse. The metric numbers came from my metric arse. Review please! :)**

**Notes: (technical terms from FT that some of you may have forgotten)**

**1)Exceeds: the talking cats, for those of you who have not yet reached the Edolas Arc**

**2)Vernier: Sky Dragon Slaying magic that increases speed**

**3)Aera: term for the cats' wings**

**4)X779: this is the format used for writing the year in FT. The current year in the plot is X784**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello there! Sorry for the wait, my beta was out for a week. Thanks to IcecreamKhionez for the review and to all of my follower for reading my fic.**

**Disclaimer: Imagine your favorite FT character. They are saying this disclaimer in their sexiest voice: _I do not own Fairy Tail. It is the property of Hiro Mashima._**

Gray, Happy, and Natsu stared hard at the mission board in the Fairy Tail guild hall. The board, as usual, was covered in a multitude of requests, ranging from easy, low-paying chores to expensive bounties for wanted criminals. Despite this huge variety of choices, there was something...not quite right about many of the requests. The trio cocked their heads to the side in puzzlement as they scanned the board.

"Aww man," Natsu moaned, "why are so many people requesting for any wizard other than me?"

Gray smiled and said, "Your reputation for destruction has spread far and wide. 'course, wrecking that _Sorcerer Weekly_ printing facility probably didn't help your case either."

Natsu glared at Gray and replied, "Hey! _You_ were there too, ya know. Besides, you've caused as much destruction as I have, not to mention you're a pervert. Look, the requests say that they don't want me or you."

From below them, they heard Happy cried out, "I found one!" Instantly the two wizards looked at the for that Happy pointed to, jostling for a better view.

Gray read the paper aloud, "Seeking a handsome teenager to accompany my daughter this evening to the birthday party of a friend. The party is going to be an extravagant affair and I want her to make a powerful impression. Dance experience preferred. 200,000J reward."

Natsu reached for the sheet of paper, almost certainly thinking of the free food that was bound to be at parties like this, but Gray, knowing Natsu well, slapped his hand away and said, "You of all people on a job like this? The _best_ case scenario here is that you spend the whole time stuffing your face."

"And the worst case scenario?" Happy asked coyly.

"Tears and Arson. Actually, the best case scenario might have a little arson, too." Gray's gaze alit on one of the requests adjacent to the first, and said, "Here, try this one. It's from the Magnolia Astronomical Society, and it wants you to investigate this bizarre weather that we've been having. This is perfect for you and Happy." And if he's above the clouds, Natsu will be out of my hair, Gray thought. He took the party request and left, not bothering to wait for Natsu's decision.

As Gray strode out of the guild hall, leaving his clothes behind, he heard Natsu comment to Happy, "So he _does_ do birthday parties. Think he'll go as a cop or a fireman?"

"I wonder if he'll jump out of the cake, too," Happy added with a snicker.

Gray clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, but, spying Erza out of the corner of his eye, ignored Natsu and continued out of the guild hall, but not before having to return for his pants.

* * *

Lahar jotted down some more notes on his notepad, and asked, "What did you do before the party?"

"I went home prepared for the party. Showered, shaved, picked out my outfit, put on cologne, stuff like that. After that, a few hours before the party started, I finalized the acceptance of the request and met the client. Nice lady, by the way. I feel sorry for her," Gray replied.

"Yes, I've spoken to her. As you can imagine, she was distraught," Lahar said.

Lucy, sitting beside the stern Rune Knight, wondered why Gray had bothered to provide that many details about this. Much of the information was almost certainly irrelevant, except for a few details. For one, his mission. While not quite an alibi, it made Gray's reason for finding the body sound less suspicious. Another detail was Natsu's mission. Lucy was certain that there was a link between the fog and the killer, and Natsu, being Natsu, would probably stumble into something important. Well, if he didn't incinerate it first.

"Now tell us about the party itself," Lahar said.

"Well, it was fairly uneventful," Gray began, "it was the birthday girl's–her name was Clarice I believe–seventeenth birthday, and she had a lot of family from out of town in. From what I have heard, her father was going to give part of the family company on her seventeenth birthday, which made it extra-special. My client had me meet her daughter, Silvia, at the front door. My...reputation...preceded me, and I got a lot of...umm...attention from many of the teenage girls. Their mothers, too. Don't tell Natsu about that part, Lucy. Anyhow, other than that, we danced, ate cake, and watched Clarice open many, many gifts. Other than how expensive the whole thing was, it was a normal birthday party."

Lahar put down a few more notes, and said, "Okay, were there any other details about the party that you would like to share?"

"The band wasn't that great, considering how much they must have been paid. All of the men in Clarice's family wore some kind of horrible-smelling cologne. I remember Silvia telling me that it was in style from where they came from. Also, Juvia was there. I figured that she was there for the same reason as me, but with a lonely guy instead, but she never spoke to anybody. She just stood around and watched me. The food was all kinds of seafood, the cake was a decadent chocolate, and no two people gave Clarice the same gift," Gray replied.

Lahar wrote down more note and said, "Thank you, I have just one more question for you. How were you involved in the events of finding the body?"

Gray sighed, then began, "After Clarice opened her gifts, everyone started to go home. It was late, so I offered to take Silvia and two of her friends back to her house. The fog was thick as we walked back, and Silvia was a little ways ahead of the group. Suddenly, she looked spooked and just started running. We lost sight of her for a few minutes as we tried to chase after her, but when he caught up to her, she was lying face-down in a pool of water."

Lahar jotted down some last few notes, then said, "Thank you for your time. This interrogation is over. You may leave." Gray got up from his chair and walked out of the room.

After he left, Lucy looked over at Lahar and asked, "So, what did you think?"

"His story about the party matches up well with the other party guests that I questioned previously," Lahar replied, "but I have not spoken to the friends that accompanied him away from the party, so I can not verify that part of the story."

"Who else do we have to interrogate?" Lucy asked.

"Juvia Lockster and Erza Scarlet, from Fairy Tail. Then, we visit the crime scene, so you can familiarize yourself with it," Lahar replied.

"We should question Natsu, too," Lucy said.

Lahar looked simultaneously puzzled by Lucy's offer and disgusted by the prospect of being face to face with the notorious dragon slayer. "Natsu? Why?"

"He is investigating the fog, so he might know something about how our killer could have used it," Lucy, pleased that she had found something that Lahar missed.

Lahar sighed and said, "Do you know where he is?"

Lucy shook her head and said, "No, I don't. We'll just have to wait for him to return from his mission. If I had to guess, he is probably getting himself into trouble, as usual."

* * *

Lucy's prediction was correct; Natsu certainly was into trouble. He was face-down in the dirt right now, but he was not badly hurt. He had fired jets of fire in the direction of the ground as he fell, which slowed his fall and saved his life. That said, his efforts hadn't stopped the face plant.

Natsu jerked upright. Wait a minute, he thought, why was he in the dirt? He could have sworn that he was over the city when he fell. As he looked around, he confirmed that he was, in fact, in the forest near the city that he always played in as a child. Suddenly, he heard a loud boom and the sound of falling trees. Natsu began to run closer to the sounds, and noticed the winds picking up as he approached. A tree was torn up from its roots right in front of Natsu, and revealed a clearing. The ground in the clearing was torn up and marked with craters and broken tree stumps, revealing that this was not natural. Flying high in the sky above Natsu was the spinning sphere of fog that knocked him out of the sky. Shooting out of it were watery projectiles–bubbles, Natsu realized. The bubbles would strike trees or the ground and pop, releasing a shockwave powerful enough to make craters and knock trees down. Animals caught in the blast would be knocked into the air with a surprised squeak or squawk. From the sphere, Natsu heard some sort of gurgling chant.

_Oh great Thundering King_

_Chained monarch of earth and sky_

_Rattle your chains in blessing_

_Strain at the call to battle_

_Lay your benediction upon this battlefield_

_So you may feel each blow_

_And taste each drop of blood_

_Amen_

The sphere lowered itself to the ground and stopped spinning. The winds died down and the mist around the chanter lost its shape, still obscuring the blurry shape within it. The figure drew out a wicked two-pronged spear and turned to face the dragon slayer (Natsu assumed, what with the face being obscured and all). Then the figure spoke in a gurgling, yet cultured tongue, "Greetings Natsu Dragneel. I apologize for your rough landing, but it shouldn't be anything a warrior like you couldn't survive. Welcome to my little party. As a connoisseur of destruction yourself, you should appreciate this ballroom that I have constructed out here." As he said this, Natsu could imagine the figure smiling wickedly. Then, without warning, the figure's voice dropped all pretense of culture and dropped into an almost inhuman snarl, and said, "Now let's dance till we drop you _fire-lickin' son of a newt_!" Unable to resist the promise of a good fight, Natsu charged.

**Review Please! No numbers this time. Is the sexy character voice still in your head? Did you read the entire chapter in that voice? I did.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hiya! I'll just scoot on in here with my mext chapter... Actually, I'm really curious as to how I did here because my beta says my fight scenes are weird. I'll let you, my readers and beloved followers, decide that for yourselves.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. You know, sometimes I think that these disclaimers are a bit repetive, considering most people would have gotten the message after four of them.**

Natsu, true to his usual reckless fighting style, rapidly closed the distance and unleashed a "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist" at the mist-bound figure. Unsurprisingly, the dragon slayer's attack only made contact with the mist surrounding his opponent, as the figure side-stepped gracefully. Suddenly the enemy was behind him and Natsu felt the haft of his foe's two-pronged spear slam into his back, knocking him off balance. As Natsu stumbled, he shot a blast of fire from one of his elbows in the direction of that counterattack and was rewarded with a sizzle and a grunt. He spun around to gaze at his opponent. Unfortunately, the veil of mist prevented Natsu from observing any damage that he dealt.

Natsu charged again, fire spurting from both arms, and the figure dodged again, this time striking at the back of Natsu's knee with the butt of the spear. Natsu repeated this several times more, each time ejecting a flame from a different part of his body, gauging the location of his enemy. For his efforts he was rewarded with multiple blows to his back and legs.

"Getting a mite bit repetitive, are we?" Natsu's opponent asked wearily in his gurgling voice, evidently unimpressed by the dragon slayer's tactics.

"As long as you're just throwing weak-ass hits, I can do this all day long," Natsu taunted. In reality, the figure had put quite a bit of strength behind his attacks, and Natsu was bruised and bleeding from his back and legs. "I'm just getting fired up," Natsu said with a grin. For some reason, he just couldn't fight seriously without saying his catchphrase.

Natsu charged one time more and feinted with his iron fist. He spun around, to where he expected the counterattack to come from. The figure dodged and swung his weapon, and, guessing its location correctly, Natsu caught the spear with one hand. Following the length of the spear to its wielder, Natsu unleashed his breath weapon point-blank at his opponent. For one moment, the searing flames seemed to overwhelm the mist and engulf the figure, but the figure intoned, "Mistwalker's Typhoon," and a maelstrom of water appeared and swirled around the figure, instantly quenching the flames. Caught in the whirlpool, Natsu was battered into the ground and thrown aside.

"You'll have to burn a lot hotter to hurt me," the figure sneered, "To date, no fire magic has been able to defeat the combined wind and water of our almighty chained lord's holy Mistwalker Magic!" Unsurprisingly, Natsu ignored this longwinded and suspiciously exposition-like taunt.

Natsu wrinkled his nose, and said, "You talk too much. Also, you stink."

"Is that really the best piece of trash talk you can muster?" the figure chided him.

"No, really, you smell terrible," Natsu replied, "seriously, you'd expect someone who uses water magic to bathe at least once in his lifetime." Indeed, there was a smell wafting off of the figure horrible enough to put even Natsu off of his appetite, and, even more alarmingly, rob him of his will to fight.

"My hygiene is perfect!" Natsu's opponent sputtered, "This exquisite scent happens to be Sturm No. 6, the latest cologne from the famed Sturm line of scents. It drives the ladies _crazy_."

"It would definitely drive people insane," Natsu agreed, "By the way, are you the cause of all of this bizarre weather?"

"What if I am?" the figure asked.

"I'm supposed to find the cause of this fog for a mission, and, to be honest, I don't want to fight someone who smells like a garbage dump unless I really have to," Natsu replied.

"Of course I am creating this fog! This beautiful weather is a temple to my eternal lord of storms, for, as one of his priests, I am expected to uphold his sanctity," the figure cried. The figure's apparent desire to tell Natsu about himself and his horrific scent clashed oddly with his aura of mystery and unwillingness to show his face. Natsu figured that his opponent was as ugly as he was smelly.

"Okay then. Mind if I leave to find something to plug my nose with?" Natsu said, as he edged his way to the edge of the clearing that they were fighting in.

"No! You cannot leave until I allow it," the figure cried, "Mist Geyser!" The figure slammed the butt of his spear into the ground, which shook beneath the blow. Huge geysers of wind and water blasted up from underneath the ground in a circle around the pair, neatly trapping Natsu together with his opponent.

Natsu sighed, then inhaled sharply, saying," Fire Dragon's Ro-" However, before he could unleash his attack, a geyser burst out of the ground and hit him straight on the chin. Natsu's head was knocked sharply upwards, and his breath weapon pierced a neat hole through the clouds above his head. Dazed and nearly overcome by the smell, which had somehow gotten stronger, Natsu fell on his behind.

"I expected a far better performance from the great Natsu Dragneel," the figure said sadly, "It's quite humiliating, isn't it? I am well aware of your transportation weakness, but I never expected you to be defeated by your own keen sense of smell." He closed in on Natsu and hefted his spear for a finishing blow.

Suddenly, a clean, refreshing, powerful blast of wind cut down through the hole in the clouds that Natsu had created, knocking the figure aside, stopping the geysers, and cleared the air of the foul stench. Down through the clouds flew Happy, Carla, and Wendy, for the blast had been her breath weapon, of course.

"Natsu! We saw that fire burst through the clouds and figured it was you. You're a mess. What happened?" Happy said, as he picked up a still-woozy Natsu.

"That _wacko_ attacked me," Natsu said, pointing to where he had seen the figure only a moment ago. However, the spot that Natsu pointed to was empty, as the figure had drawn up a thick veil of mist and escaped upon the appearance of Natsu's companions. "It was the person responsible for the weather," Natsu continued, "He was religious and really hammy. Also, he had a weird voice and smelled like something died. Inside another something that died. Inside of a zombie skunk. Covered in cheap cologne."

* * *

Meanwhile, Juvia's testimony had proven less than useful for Lucy and Lahar's investigation. According to Juvia, she had spent the entire day following Gray around while trying to find out what he was dressing in fancy clothes for. At the party itself, she spent most of her time there watching Gray dance with his date and wishing that she could take Silvia's place. While Juvia definitely had motive and possessed the ability to kill in a way that matched the killer's M.O., her alibi during the time of the murder checked out when a dozen different people at the party witnessed her singing drunken love songs about Gray after accidentally drinking spiked punch. Lahar had managed to fine her for trespassing at the party without an invitation, but it was hardly the guild-breaking scandal that he was looking for.

Next, Erza walked into the interrogation room. Lahar peered at his notes, and said, "Ms. Scarlet, this is a most interesting visit. You see, I have you in the next town over dealing with a monster problem at the time of the murder, and none of the witness testimonies that have been collected so far have put you here either. So, how could you possibly have any information that pertains to this case?"

Erza cleared her throat and said, "Actually, I believe I have encountered this murderer before, many years ago, in a very different town far away from here..."

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	6. Chapter 6

**I offer a warm hello to all of my followers and a welcome to any new readers that happen to stumble across this fic. Thanks to my beta, Potter4me. I offered to actually make her my official beta sometime in the future, but that sounds like a pretty big committment to me.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Surprisingly enough, I don't own a lot of the works that I didn't write.**

Erza cleared her throat and said, "Actually, I believe I have encountered this murderer before, many years ago, in a very different town far away from here..." Erza paused, as if expecting something to happen. Several minutes passed by in silence.

"Well?" Lahar said impatiently.

Erza looked around, as if startled, and replied, "I dunno. I expected us to go into a flashback. Don't you guys have a spell for that?" Lahar sighed in exasperation. That's Erza for you, Lucy thought. Actually, Lucy realized, this was pretty weird for Erza, since the Magic Council usually put her in a serious mood.

"Well, it was about five years ago, I think," Erza started (for real this time), "I had a mission where I was to go to some backwater fishing village on the north coast of Fiore. To this day the name and exact location of that place escape me. The only way that I got there was because of a map that was included with the request, which I have long since lost. There had been a series of attacks on some of the villagers, and the village leaders believed it to be some kind of wizard or monster. They didn't have a local wizards guild, or even many villagers with any real knowledge of magic."

"Would it be correct to assume that these attacks are relevant to Silvia's murder?" Lahar asked.

"I was just getting to that," Erza replied, "The village head reported that the victims of the attacks were found in pools of water, and the local mortician claimed that they were killed by magic. Actually, I did some investigating of my own while I was there, but many of the villagers were...uncooperative."

"Uncooperative," Lucy asked, "How?"

"Well, they were very quiet, for one," Erza said, "I don't think that most of the villagers were particularly fond of strangers. Also, everybody in the village was religious. They carried around some kind of pendant shaped like a trident, the symbol of a local sea god, I think. Usually the villagers that I came across would grip their pendant, mutter something under their breaths, and scurry back into their homes. For all I would know they practiced virgin sacrifice. Lucky you, Lucy." Lucy's cheeks turned a bright shade of scarlet. Erza continued, "Only a handful of people actually were willing to hold a conversation with me–wealthy people for the most part, like the village head, the doctors, some merchants, and a shopkeeper or two. In the end I think I had to wander the streets, trying to lure out the attackers."

"Who was the attacker?" Lahar asked, his hand gripping his quill tightly in anticipation of a potential lead.

"Fish people," Erza replied.

"Excuse me?" Lahar said with a bewildered look on his face.

"There was a colony of merfolk that lived underwater a few miles off of the coast," Erza clarified, "These fish people were man-eaters, so every so often they would crawl up onto land to hunt. They usually targeted travelers, but recently had been hunting locals. The village heads put up that request in order to draw more prey to their village. Naturally, they didn't expect a wizard of my caliber to appear. If you were wondering, I completely wiped out that colony during my visit." Lucy shuddered, imagining Erza slicing up the fish people like they were sushi.

Erza rubbed her armor-plated belly as she reminisced, "I ate fish for a week after that."

Lucy just barely heard Lahar comment under his breath in response to Erza's story, "Great. Just fantastic. It's the Orangutan incident all over again." He looked up at Erza and said, at an audible volume this time, "Is it likely that one of these...fish people...could use magic that creates a thick fog that can, say, send someone from one side of town to the other?"

Erza placed her hand on her chin as she thought for a little while, then replied, "It might be possible. The ones that I fought used little more than basic water magic, but the fog could definitely have been used by a particularly talented individual. As far as I could tell, this fog wasn't part of one of their signature magical styles, so it is more likely a human could be using similar magic."

Lahar, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of a non-human killer, jotted some more down in his notes, then he picked up the information file that he had given to Lucy earlier and handed it to Erza, asking, "Does the autopsy information here match up with your experience?"

"I didn't actually see the victims, just heard about them from the doctors. However, I'll take a look anyways," she replied. Erza read over the file, and her eyes widened in surprise. "I remember them now," she said, " Some of the names, I mean. Sturm and Markester were the last names of two of the merchants that I spoke to in that village."

Suddenly, Lahar, who hadn't put much weight into Erza's story up to that point, leaned forward eagerly and said, "Really? What was their relationship like? Were they rivals? Enemies? Why were they in Magnolia?"

"When I spoke to them, they were arguing," Erza replied, trying to keep up with Lahar's questions, "I'm pretty sure that they were old friends, since they were arguing about the prospects of leaving the village together. Mr. Markester was frightened by the prospect of his family being attacked, but Mr. Sturm was unwilling to leave his family's home that they had lived in for generations. By the looks of it, Mr. Markester won out, and they brought their wives and children all the way to Magnolia. I'm sorry, but that is all I know about them."

Lahar politely thanked Erza for her time and allowed her to leave. After Erza left, Lahar turned to Lucy and said, "Well, you heard her. Given what she told us, I think we should get a second opinion from the party-goers."

"Not to mention that we should revisit the crime scene," Lucy added. There was something that was bothering her that she could quite put her finger on, but she needed more information first. "Umm, maybe now you can take suspicion off of Fairy Tail now?" she said to Lahar.

Lahar laughed and said, "Hardly. The Council would have my head if I cleared Fairy Tail after interrogating three members. Ask me again when the murderer is in our custody."

Then the pair left the interrogation room and set off towards the lonely abandoned market square that served as their crime scene. Lucy still couldn't get the image of Erza turning mermaids into sushi out of her head.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Why hello there! I think the latest chapter for this fic is due. Thanks to all of my followers for reading this fic, to my beta Potter4me, and to Nyasol for the reviews. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail isn't mine and never will be. Darn shame, isn't it?**

Lahar and Lucy stepped out of the Fairy Tail guild hall into the misty courtyard that served as the Rune Knights' base of operation. As they passed one of the blue and white tents, Lahar motioned to one of his knights, a tall, thin man with a crooked nose and a weak chin, who approached the pair. Lucy figured that he was the go-fer, considering that this man looked weak enough to be knocked over by a stiff breeze. "I need you to find the current residence of the guests from out of town that attended Ms. Sturm's birthday party. We believe that the killer may have connection to the hometown of the Sturm and Markester families, but we need more information about it," Lahar said to the man.

The knight nodded and asked, "Where will I be able to find you once I obtain their location?"

"Ms. Heartfilia and I will be taking a closer look around the scene of the crime. You should be able to find us there," Lahar replied. He then walked across the courtyard, where a group of six other knights were waiting for him, and ordered them to escort Lucy and himself to the crime scene.

As the group walked into the street, Lucy turned to Lahar and asked, "So, um, have you even been to the crime scene yet? And how are we even going to get there, what with this fog and all?"

"I have been there briefly once before already, "Lahar replied, "and the fog looks like it's thinned out enough to see where we are going." Sure enough, while the weather was still overcast, the fog was slowly dissipating, until Lucy could see almost to the end of the street.

Walking through town escorted by Rune Knights gave Lucy a somewhat uneasy feeling, as none of the knights, with their grim expressions, looked particularly inclined to speak to hear. In fact, they were so unexpressive that Lucy briefly entertained the idea of knocking one over to see if the knight would fall over and break. Maybe she could knock them into each other and watch them fall like dominoes. A silly idea, like the ones that Natsu would think of all the time, except that Natsu probably _would_ give one of the knights a shove.

The trip was much worse that when she and Juvia had been escorted earlier that day, considering then the fog was thick and the streets were nearly deserted. Now that the weather had improved, Magnolia's citizens emerged from their homes to go about their daily business. As they scurried around the group of Rune Knights, many gawked at Lucy as she walked past them. She had done odd jobs for many of these people, whom Lucy recognized. Lucy's face turned red with embarrassment and she felt like a prisoner instead of someone who was on equal terms with Lahar.

Eager to break the eerie silence that had befallen the group, Lucy turned to Lahar and said, "Is it more difficult, compared to non-magical work? The investigating, that is. I mean, what with magical murders not leaving as many traces, isn't finding evidence harder?" Ouch, Lucy thought. That kind of awful sentence structure wasn't finding it's way into any of _her_ writing.

Lahar paused for a second, as if contemplating Lucy's question, then replied, "You would think that it's harder, but it is really not as bad as you might imagine. While magical crimes are harder to trace by conventional crime-solving methods, we have ways to trace which spells are cast and by whom, so I wouldn't call it harder. Just different."

Eventually the stream of people passing the group slowed to a trickle, then stopped, as they drew closer to the crime scene. Finally the abandoned market square came into view, with a pair of Rune Knights guarding the entrance. Eager to be away from her stoic escorts, Lucy ran into the square and looked around. Behind her Lahar was asking the guards if they had seen anything suspicious. Nada, apparently.

Before Lucy lay the burned buildings around the square; the worst damage was at the opposite end of the square directly across from the entrance, where the former businesses were merely blackened husks. The buildings farther away from the blackened area exhibited less fire damage, but they were also severely dilapidated, showing how long the area had been abandoned. The ground was paved with hard cobblestones that were unlikely to yield any footprints.

Drawn by curiosity, Lucy walked toward the building that she suspected to have contained the center of the blaze. As she neared the remains of the building, she noticed that there were more cobblestones under her feet that were blackened and cracked, attesting to the heat of the fire. Suddenly, Lahar came up to her from behind and said, "I have a pretty good guess as to how and who started this fire."

Knowing exactly who Lahar was talking about, Lucy retorted, "You can't prove that Natsu or any other Fairies did this. Besides, we aren't here to investigate old fires." Despite this, Lucy had a sinking feeling that Natsu would end up having to be involved in this case. While Lucy really wouldn't have minded his presence, Natsu's skills and attitude were more likely to disrupt than aid the investigation.

Behind her, Lahar said, "In that case you should come back to the center of the square, where Silvia died. We're going to attempt to cast one of our tracing spells to find out who did this." Lucy looked back and saw that the knights had traced a wall of shimmering text that rose several feet in the air around the spot where the corpse had been found. The Rune Knights completed their spell, and a pillar of brilliant blue light shot into the sky over the text wall.

The pillar of light split apart into a myriad of beams that enveloped the entire square, and Lucy could make out one line of text in the text wall: April 22, X784 11:30PM. The date of the murder and the estimated time of the murder. Out of the blue light, two figures coalesced: one was certainly Silvia, held aloft and struggling in the crushing grip of shimmering blue water, also made of blue light. A ways away from Silvia, near where Lucy stood, was the form of a woman, her body mostly obscured by mist. Despite how close Lucy was to the woman, she still couldn't make out her face. Based off of this, Lucy realized that the blue light replayed the murder from the point of view form the wall of text–the point of view of the victim in this case.

However, the water that covered poor Silvia was not coming from the mysterious woman, but from somewhere deep in the ruined building that Lucy and Lahar stood in front of. Immediately the pair rushed into the ruined building, following the stream of water made of blue light that emerged from the building. Unfortunately, before Lucy and Lahar could find the source of the water, the spell ran out of power and the blue light vanished. Despite this hideously predictable setback, the two wizards continued to sift through the ash, looking for any usable evidence. Lucy uncovered a vial that contained some kind of viscous fluid–actually, it looked more like a vial of snot than anything else. However, Lahar uncovered a far greater prize–a trapdoor that had clearly escaped burn damage, located below a thick layer of debris near the back of the ruined building. Suddenly, before they could open up the trapdoor, a piercing scream cut through the air behind them, along with a rumble and something that sounded like rushing water.

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	8. Chapter 8

**Hello to everybody who is happening upon this fic! And thank you to all of my followers and to Lilywhite13 for the review. Also, a big thinks to my beta. You know who you are!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. Sometimes, I doubt that I really need these disclaimers.**

Quickly placing the strange vial into one of the pouches in her key holder, Lucy turned around to see where the scream came from. Then she saw it, and her eyes widened. It was as if someone had transported a river into Magnolia's city streets. A huge wall of rushing water rapidly coursed through the avenue that she and Lahar had traversed only moments before.

The first thing that she noticed about this urban tide, other than the obvious fact that it really didn't belong here, was that it seemed to come from the mist itself, collecting strength from the rapidly condensing fog. Next, Lucy noticed that a number of poor souls had been caught up in the wave; Rune Knights and unfortunate bystanders alike were tossed about the current, as if they were attempting to swim through raging rapids. Additionally, the river was confined neatly within the boundaries of the street, out of the businesses and homes that lined it, as if it were expected to knock and ask the residents politely to flood their house and carry them helplessly out into the street. Lastly, she noticed two figures running desperately ahead of the tide, outpacing the water by mere footsteps. One, she recognized as the weak chinned knight that Lahar had sent to gain information about the whereabouts of the party guests, while the other runner was a woman that Lucy did not recognize. She was tall and thin with long, straight black hair, wearing a white cotton dress. She appeared to be in her early to mid twenties.

As the pair of runners passed into the previously-abandoned-but-now-increasingly-crowded market square, the knights at the entrance hastily erected a glowing runic barrier. The water slammed into the barrier with enough force to crack the cobblestones around it, yet the wall held. Two glowing orbs, eyes, Lucy realized, appeared in the wall of water that comprised the front end of the creature, and it peered at the obstacle before it. Then, the wave flowed in reverse for a short distance, and appeared to paw the ground as if it was a bull preparing to charge. Then, the water struck the barrier again, this time hard enough to crack cobblestones as far away as Lucy's feet. Yet, the wall held firm. The rushing water, or rather, the unseen wizard controlling it, repeated this several times more before seemingly realizing that no amount of physical force was sufficient to bypass an eldritch fence. For a moment, Lucy thought that the stalled river would retreat.

Then, out of its murky depths, a light pen was produced, and something within the water gripped it and began to rewrite the runes that composed the barrier. Due to the speed at which it was created, there were no defenses against this type of attack, and the runes began to disappear at an alarming rate. The knights that put up the wall frantically attempted to bolster the rapidly failing barrier, but they were too late. The last runes vanished, and the wave entered the square. The pair of valiant knights stood their ground and were overtaken by the wave, which picked them up and examined them like insects caught by an inquisitive but cruel child. Suddenly the currents within the water changed direction and the pair of men were hurled into the ground with a sickening thud. Lucy, who had been relatively calm since the creature's appearance, let out a sympathetic gasp. Fortunately, the remainder of the Rune Knights had managed to retreat out of the liquid monster's reach, on the far side of the square. Less fortunately, the square only had one entrance and one exit.

Luckily, the monster slowed down to a cautious pace after entering the square, giving Lucy time to think. Apparently even this thing was wary of cornered wizards. Lucy wracked her brain, thinking of any possibility that would get them out of this situation. First, she wished that she would have had some real assistance, considering that the Magic Council's finest didn't have enough time to prepare a real offensive. What Lucy really wanted was another Fairy Tail wizard. Any Fairy Tail wizard, even Happy with his snarky remarks and general lack of combat ability, would have been helpful. Well, except for Natsu. That current would almost certainly render him motion sick. Lucy shook her head and cleared away her wistful thinking. Like the old saying goes, if wishes were fishes they'd be...um...inside that watery thing in front of her, probably. No, she'd have to do this herself. Out of her celestial spirits, Lucy reasoned, two of them have abilities that would be effective here. Considering that Aquarius would probably straight-up murder her and everybody around her if she was summoned inside a water monster, Lucy chose the alternative.

"Open, Door of the Ram!" Lucy shouted, "Aries!" The sheep-like celestial with the name of the Greek war god appeared in a puff of smoke. Aries immediately shied away from the gathered crowd of Rune Knights, but shied back when she realized exactly what she was moving toward. Lucy turned to her spirit and asked, "Do you think that you will be able to stop that?"

"I...uh...erm...I think so," the shy spirit replied, still trying to decide whether it would be better to stand closer to a crowd or a formless abomination. Deciding on the latter, Aries turned to face it. "Wool bomb," she cried, as she unleashed a huge cloud of bright pink wool. The wool struck the watery creature and immediately began soaking up the liquid that comprised it, filling the air with the smell of wet wool. Diminished, but hardly defeated, the monster halted its advance.

Seeing his chance, Lahar went into action, ordering his men to close ranks and create a barrier that would force the thing back. Sensing the actions of the Rune Knights, the monster attempted to charge, but was met with another cloud of wool that stopped it and soaked up more of its body mass. The Rune Knights began tracing runes in tandem, forging a golden shield that crackled with power. The water beast, sensing its destruction, tried to retreat, but, before it could leave the square, Aries sent a wool bomb over it, into the entrance to the square. The tail end of the creature was absorbed into the wool, and all of the people in the street were released from the powerful tide. The line of knights advanced, pushing their crackling magical wall into the monster. There arose a great multitude of sparks and the smell of ozone, as lightning coursed through the watery body of the monster. Finally, the glowing orbs dimmed and the monster's watery body burst apart, flooding the remainder of the square. Lucy sent Aries away and strode into the pool of water that was once wreaking havoc through the area only moments before.

She searched and searched, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not find the wizard that must have been controlling it, who took apart the magical barrier. She turned around and saw Lahar conversing with the messenger and the woman that had been fleeing the monster. As Lucy walked to join them, she wondered where Natsu was. The monster clearly took power from the fog, and Natsu might have run into the wizard responsible for this.

LINE

Meanwhile, Natsu, Happy, Carla, and Wendy wandered through the forest, quite lost.

"Natsu, I thought that you said you spent a lot of time in these woods," Wendy said, "Shouldn't you two have found the way back to town yet?"

Natsu looked left, then right. "It's that damn fog, messin' up my sense of direction. I'm gonna pummel that guy the next time I see him," Natsu replied. Above him, he heard a bonk noise, as Happy flew into a tree for what must have been the eight time that day.

"I can't see why we can't just fly above the fog and have Natsu or Wendy blast away parts of it to check our position," Happy said.

"And risk Natsu starting a forest fire or destroying part of town?" Carla retorted, flying beside him. She looked like she was preparing a suggestion of her own, but then ran into a tree branch herself before she could speak further.

Suddenly, Natsu pointed ahead and said, "The trees are thinning. I think the town is just ahead." All four rushed toward the area where Natsu pointed. They ended up in the clearing where Natsu had fought earlier that day. All four of them groaned simultaneously.

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**Note: Yeah, I'll be using a few OC's here. I promise that they won't take over the plot or anything, but there are some roles that I am unable to fill with canon characters.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello, and welcome back to my tale of suspense and fairies. Mostly fairies, although I might have some supended fairies, too. Thanks to all of my followers and to Aquos35 for the review. Also thanks to Potter4me, my unofficial beta.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, but I do own some of the manga. Close enough.**

"Reporting for duty, sir. I have successfully ascertained the temporary residence of the out of town guests for Ms. Sturm's birthday party," the messenger said. While he was breathing heavily and sweating profusely, Lucy noticed that the man's demeanor was remarkably calm. Apparently fleeing from monsters was par for the course in his occupation.

Lahar, who, to Lucy, appeared far more shaken up from the fight than his messenger, nodded and said, "Excellent. Deliver your full report, including your account of what just happened here."

"I started by contacting the Sturm family and asking for a guest list for the party, which they provided," the messenger said, "Next, I asked them which names were from out of town, which, again, they provided, and I crossed referenced the out of town names with the guest lists for all of the hotels in the vicinity of the Sturm residence. Finally, I took the liberty of contacting each visiting person and escorting them to the Sturm residence, where I told them you would meet them." Lucy's eyes widened with surprise. All of that in the time it took for her to get here with Lahar and search the ruined building? He must have been teleporting, maybe right into people's rooms, even. The messenger looked straight at Lucy, as if knowing what she was thinking. "There were only four of them," he said dryly.

"This," the messenger continued, motioning to the woman that he had run in with, "is Ms. Monica Sturm, the wife of Mr. Nicholas Sturm, who is the brother of Mr. Paul Sturm, Clarice's father. I was escorting her and her husband to the Sturm residence when that monster attacked us. I failed to see where it came from since the mist thickened immediately before its appearance. While we were running away from it–"

"The mist thickened and you found yourself near here," Lucy finished.

The messenger shot Lucy a strange look before saying, "Yes, exactly. How did you know?"

"It happened to me, along with another mage, while we were walking to the Fairy Tail guild hall. I didn't notice it at the time, but I think Juvia and I ended up on the street leading to this one, same as you," Lucy replied.

At this moment, Monica Sturm dropped to her knees, sobbing. The other three, alarmed, turned their attentions to her. "My husband!" she cried, "W-we lost him on the w-way. Th-that _thing_ followed us through, to here, but Nick wasn't there when the most cleared!"

Lucy bent down to comfort her, saying, "Now, now, he's probably fine. I mean, if that thing chased you, then he must be safe."

"Yeah, it's not like a monster made of water can split in two or anything," Lahar remarked. Lucy glared at him. "While Mr. Sturm's safety is of great importance right now, there is an even more pressing matter," Lahar continued, "It is quite possible that we have found our killer. It fits the M.O. of Silvia's killer, it attacked other party guests, it returned to the scene of the crime, and it matches up well with our illusionary imprint of the events of the murder." Lucy shook her head. The evidence still didn't match up completely, and there was still that suspicious trapdoor that Lahar had uncovered and the strange vial that Lucy found.

Behind them, there was a creak and a slam, as some of the Rune Knights that had been driven back into the ruined building by the monster opened up the trapdoor. They threw a quick rock-paper-scissors; one of the knights let out a groan and, illuminating a magical light, crossed the threshold into the stygian blackness beyond the trapdoor. Lucy walked over to observe as the other knights waited in anticipation.

"It's empty!" the man that had gone in cried in relief. Lucy peeked in, and, sure enough, it was a small, empty room.

"A smuggling compartment," Lahar said, coming up behind Lucy, "It was probably magically protected once, hence the good condition of the trapdoor. Also, it would have made a perfect hiding spot for our killer."

"...which wasn't the water monster," Lucy added, "I saw something using a light pen to get rid of the barrier protecting the square. That would indicate that there was a wizard controlling the monster, since it didn't seem that smart by itself."

Suddenly, Lahar let out a laugh and said, "Congratulations, you just destroyed one of your chances to shift the blame away from Fairy Tail! Admittedly, my superiors would have been disappointed if I jumped to conclusions and accused someone not of your guild." Apparently Lahar's orders to persecute Fairy Tail as a motley band of cutthroats clashed with his natural love of justice. That, or he was actually trying to tell a joke. Lucy let out a slight laugh, just in case. Lahar's expectant expression confirmed her suspicions.

After a brief, but awkward, silence, Lahar cleared his throat and said, "Well, we have potential witnesses to question and a woman's husband to find, so we should probably be on our way to the Sturm residence."

A medical team had arrived while they were speaking, and Lucy was relieved to see that the monster hadn't killed anybody, even the guards that had been hurled into the pavement, who were receiving treatment as Lucy, Lahar, the messenger, Monica, and their escort passed them. None of the other people that had gotten caught in the creature were seriously injured; the worst that they received consisted of bruises and sea-sickness. The remains of the monster that had been flooding the street were quietly draining into the sewers. It was as if the attack had never happened.

Even more fortunately, Monica Sturm's husband was alive and completely uninjured when the group reached the Sturm family's house. Nicholas Sturm was a tall, handsome, grey haired gentleman, although his smooth face made him look much younger than his hair color suggested. He was standing outside, waiting for his wife with open arms, but her enthusiasm when they reunited didn't quite reach the level of her theatrics back in the market square.

Lucy let out a low whistle as they entered the house, greeted by a friendly old butler. Growing up in the family of a wealthy businessman, Lucy was no stranger to the homes of the rich, but she hadn't ever encountered opulence this concentrated before. It was as if the family had taken all of their valuables, their artwork, their antique suits of armor, their ornate wooden carvings, and their extensive library of books, and transplanted them from a manor in the countryside to this much smaller house in Magnolia. Obviously, this house was much, much larger than Lucy's current abode (smaller than the guild hall, though), but their collection was almost certainly as large as her father's, who had much more space to store it all.

The entrance hallway was very narrow. The walls were absolutely crammed with artwork of a variety of styles; what little wall space remained was covered in gold filigree. Every so often, there was a statue or a suit of armor that seemed to take up half the hallway, forcing the group to walk in single file at times. Eventually, they passed a number of rooms, each of them as crammed with artwork as the hall. They passed a large ballroom, where Lucy assumed the dancing for the party took place. Eventually, they were lead into a parlor room, where three other men waited; the master of the house, along with the other two out of town guests. They all looked oddly similar, rather squat and fat, with eyes that seemed to bulge out from their faces, a stark contrast to Nicholas's looks. And they all smelled horrible.

**And Lucy died. The end. Just kidding!**** I still have more of this fic to write. To improve it, send reviews, please!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello everybody! I have had a busy schedule lately, so I didn't know when this chapter would be going up. Obviously, I finished it! Thanks to all of my followers and to Aquos35 for his second review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of the other works that I may or may not have referenced elsewhere in this fic.**

"Greetings," the man seated in the middle said, "My name is Paul Sturm. This is my cousin, Frederick," he said, motioning to the man on his left, "and this is my younger brother, Isaac," motioning to the man on his right, "Clearly, you have already met my older brother, Nicholas." With their squat bodies and froglike eyes, Lucy could hardly tell the men apart, aside from the tall, handsome Nicholas. If she had to be honest, she couldn't care less about their names or their faces. More importantly, these three smelled worse than an entire beach of dead fish. On the other hand, Nicholas smelled like sweat, which was an improvement.

Mr. Sturm (Paul that is. The others sitting next to him were completely silent and hardly moved since Lucy and Lahar arrived) stood up and offered to shake the hands of his guests, who backed off due to his stench. An awkward silence arose. The Rune Knight escort actually left the room entirely, citing that the room was too small for the entire group. Lucy sighed; she would have left, too, if not for the valuable information that was to be gleaned from this interview. "Well, um, you definitely have a distinct…scent," Lucy said, desperately trying to defuse the tension.

Mr. Sturm beamed and said, "Ah, yes. That would be our newest fragrance from our line of colognes, Sturm No. 6. It drives the ladies_ crazy_. It smells terrible to men unfortunately, so we haven't yet officially released it on the market." Lucy didn't know what "crazy" meant, but it probably had something to do with actual insanity.

"Well, it needs a little work, so you might want to wait a little to release it. Or better yet, keep it all to yourselves," Lucy replied. Inane chatter was fine and all, but Lucy really wanted to get this over with. Lucy cleared her throat and said, "Is there anything you know that would be helpful to us in solving Silvia's murder?"

Mr. Sturm's smile vanished, and he looked at his butler and said, "Would you fetch us the Encyclopedia of the Monstrous and a pair of wind reading glasses?" He then turned to Lucy and Lahar and said, "Could you please relate your current evidence to me? I know that it isn't typical to do this in the course of criminal investigations, but I know that I could have something useful to add."

Lahar and Lucy looked at each other and nodded. Slowly, they told Mr. Sturm about what they found, from Lucy's experience with the fog to the interrogations of the Fairy Tail wizards to their findings in the market square and the burned out building with an empty cellar to the light images to the water monster attack.

Surprisingly, Lahar added a few other pieces of information that he did not pass on to Lucy. "The Rune Knights were unable to find Silvia's parents at their house, and none of their neighbors had seen them since the night of the party," he said with trepidation, "The majority of people on the guest list could not be found since they could not make it to Magnolia. Silvia's body had several unidentifiable bite marks on it that were not included in the autopsy report." As he was saying all of this, his hands were clasped tightly enough to make his knuckles turn white. He then took a deep breath and said," We were ordered by unknown members of the Magic Council to suppress certain pieces of valuable evidence in order to shift the blame towards Fairy Tail." The room went completely silent, and Lucy's jaw dropped. She expected the council to focus on Fairy Tail, but this was ridiculous.

Lucy figured that Lahar's personal moral code was the only thing that had him relaying this information. Well, until Lahar mentioned, "The sources for some of the Magic Council's less scrupulous orders were unverifiable, so it was likely that they were forged. We are still attempting to trace these messages." Suddenly, Lucy felt a sense of déjà vu about this situation. Wasn't the whole point of the Magic Council's reconfiguration the prevention of another incident similar to the one that Jellal caused? At least this explains why Lahar wasn't eager to discuss it. He then glanced at Lucy, and she could have sworn that she saw him mouth an apology to her.

Then, Lucy brought out the strange vial that she found at the site of the burned building and showed it to Mr. Sturm. "Do you know what the stuff inside this vial is?" she asked.

Mr. Sturm took the vial and peered closely at its contents. He smiled slightly and said, "This is one of the more potent items from our line of our prank potions. See?" He flipped the vial upside down. It was faint, but Lucy managed to make out an S engraved on the bottom, along with a few other markings that she did not recognize. Mr. Sturm continued, "I believe the consumption of a small dose would cause mucus to build up in one's nasal cavities, giving one a disgusting case of a runny nose. A large dose could cause mucus to ooze out all over one's body. Tell me again, where did you find this?"

"In one of the burned ruins at the market square," she replied. Just then, the butler returned bearing a pair of wind reading glasses and a large, old book. Lucy took the glasses and asked, "So, is there a particular section of this book that you want us to read that might be helpful?"

"Read this volume from page 404 to page 588, please," the Mr. Sturm replied.

Wow, he sure had those page numbers memorized; Lucy thought as she put the glasses on and turned to the page that Mr. Sturm requested. Using the glasses, she finished those chapters in a matter of minutes.

"Well?" Lahar asked, "What did it say?"

Lucy replied, "It was about some ancient race known as the Mayarim. They were…"

"Are," Mr. Sturm interrupted emphatically.

"…are a highly intelligent group of people with fish-like characteristics. I think that they might be the fish people that Erza said that she encountered." At the mention of Erza's name, the two men seated next to Mr. Sturm shifted uncomfortably and Mr. Sturm himself coughed loudly, confirming Lucy's guess. It was not lost on Lucy that the fish that Erza had eaten may or may not have been sapient. With families. And children. Lucy sincerely hoped that Erza had actually been eating regular fish, or at least just the fish people lawyers and politicians.

Lucy continued relaying what she learned, "They are notable for being one of the earliest peoples to adopt dragon worship as one of their main religions; although, the dragons' responses to this attention tend to vary. The tribes that the author of this book contacted had dragons that were open to this worship enough for a strict hierarchy to form. The author contacted three tribes in three different varieties: a coastal tribe that lived in the salty, sunlit depths near coral reefs, a deepwater tribe that lived on the ocean floor and had adaptations to withstand the pressures and the cold, and a river tribe that lived on riverbeds and had adaptations to live in fresh or salt water."

"Is there anything that could explain the fog or the water monster?" Lahar asked.

Lucy replied, "It does say that the coastal tribe had access to fog and water based magic, referred to among them as "Mistwalker Magic." Actually, the only members of the tribe that had that magic were the members of their priestdom, who were only allowed to use Mistwalker magic and basic runic magic."

Just then, one of the details that had been bugging Lucy since Erza's story rose to the fore of her mind. She turned to Mr. Sturm and said, "Based on your reaction to Erza's name, I think you remember her stay in your town, which she, uh, forgot the name of. Can you tell me what the fish people did after Erza left?"

Mr. Sturm grimaced and said, "For your information, we hail from the village of Enboca. Your friend was…incredibly destructive. We had a perfectly stable relationship with the Mayarim, thank you very much. We had an agreement, you see. We would give them a young woman every month to become a bride for one of their number, and, in exchange, they wouldn't kill us and our fishermen's nets were never empty. There were a few murders every so often, but it was hardly a problem for us. Then, five years ago, _someone_ contacted a wizard guild and _she_ came. The coastal Mayarim village was destroyed. After that, our regular contact with the Mayarim stopped. I don't know what the long-term effects were, since my friend Mr. Markester convinced me to move to Magnolia with my wife and daughter." Lucy shuddered. The villagers getting that horrific treatment went against every fiber of her being. Still, it did help her clear up her concern. Actually, it did more than that, since the book's author actually mentioned that that the three tribes were near one Enboca village.

"Aha!" Lucy exclaimed, "Mr. Sturm, do you know where the remaining fish people might have gone? What with their village being destroyed and all…" Mr. Sturm shrugged. "You see, the pages that you told me to read detailed the cultural and physical aspects of the fish people. After that was just taxonomical information, which I did read a bit of. Apparently, they are actually related closely to selkies, which, according to their chapter, are seals capable of turning into humans by removing their skin." At this point, Mr. Sturm looked awfully confused, while Lahar was nodding.

"You see," Lucy said triumphantly, "it is quite possible that these Mayarim also have some sort of ability that allows them to turn into humans. Now, back to my question. You see, the coastal village was destroyed, and rebuilding takes time. They couldn't go into deep water or into a river, so that leaves land. The most convenient land nearby might have just happened to be your village. By my logic, these fish people turned into humans and moved into town. If one of these fish people came into Magnolia, they did so in human form. Unless you can find anybody else from Enboca in Magnolia that leaves your four foreign guests." As she said this, Lucy motioned to the two men sitting next to Mr. Sturm. Then, she turned around to point at Nicholas Sturm, but when she did so Nicholas and Monica Sturm were not in the room.

**Thanks for reading! Reviews please!**

**P.S. For the record, the tribe of fish people is based loosely off of the Deep Ones from H.P. Lovecraft's _The Shadow Over Innsmouth_. As per usual, you don't necessarily have to be familiar with the non-Fairy Tail works that I reference.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello all, and welcome to another installment in this fic. I just started school for the fall, so I don't know if I'll be able to post chapter as regularly as during the summer. Thank you to all of my followers for reading through this story, and a big thanks to Potter4me for the beta work. This story would look a lot uglier without ya!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, which is a good thing, since an American creating Japanese manga would be kinda weird.**

Natsu awoke to a multitude of chanting voices.

_By the chained one's mercy_

_Break his chains with mist, blood, treason_

_Mist: Our fervent prayers_

_Blood: The red wine of sacrifice_

_Treason: Vengeance upon the accursed ones_

_O Lord_

_Open your eyes_

_Gaze upon your domains shallow, deep, and dry_

_Stir your form_

_Shake the seas, the land, the sky_

_Unleash your power_

_Anoint us, your slaves_

_Hear us, elder dragon_

_Aethros the Hurricane_

Alerted by the word "dragon," Natsu groggily cracked open his eyes, black spots dancing before them as he attempted to remember what was happening. He recalled that, as he was working his way through the mist-shrouded forest with Wendy, Happy, and Carla, the fog closed around him as it had when he fell from the sky earlier. When it cleared, he was on a moving train. The last thing he remembered, as he was immobilized by motion sickness, was being struck on the back of the head and blacking out. The one thing about his attacker that Natsu noticed was that, strangely, it did not stink as the attacker earlier did. Actually, this attacker did not have much of a scent at all.

Noticing that his hands were free, Natsu reached up and felt the back of his head. Sure enough, there was a lump on the back of his head the size of a goose egg. Mmmm...eggs. Natsu promised himself that he would have a fried goose egg as soon as he got back to the guild hall. With sour cream, cheese, peppers, onions, steak, salmon, a whole ham, and a rack of ribs on top. All of it on fire and served with a Molotov cocktail.

When Natsu's vision cleared, he deduced that he was a long ways away from having that snack. The first thing that he noticed was that he was on a porous stone surface, similar to a sponge, but not half as soft of absorbent. As he looked up, Natsu noticed that the material formed a cage around him, in which he was the sole inmate. Natsu rapped on the stone, which chipped under the relatively small force. He wondered why in the world anybody would build a cage of this stuff. As he stood up, preparing to unleash an attack of greater force, the floor rocked under Natsu's feet like the deck of a boat. His stomach immediately shot into his throat and he collapsed to his hands and knees. Fortunately, the rocking eventually stopped, and Natsu looked out between the bars of his cage.

Sure enough, the cage was situated on a large pool of water. The water was devoid of waves and smooth and clear as a pane of glass. Carefully, Natsu crept to the edge of the cage and peered into the water. He noticed that, strangely, the cage floating on the water didn't create any ripples. Natsu stuck his hand through the bars of the cage and into the water. His hand met some resistance, but he managed to make ripples when he put more force into it. Well, at least he wouldn't be motion sick unless he moved around too much, Natsu thought.

He looked out farther and saw that there were other cages just like his, each of which held two or more people. The other prisoners were lying down on the floors of their cages, just like Natsu. For a second, he wondered if they had motion sickness just like him, since a pair of people could easily break out and swim to safety. Then, he peered down into the crystal clear depths and realized with a start that what kept the other prisoners down was not motion sickness, but fear.

* * *

As soon as she noticed Nicholas Sturm and his wife's absence, Lucy ran out of the parlor room into the hallway...straight into the pair of people that she was looking for. Lucy's emotions shifted from surprise to relief to anger. "Where did you two go?" Lucy demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

Nicholas smiled sheepishly and replied, "Sorry, I just ducked out to reapply my cologne. You see, my sweat washed it off while I ran from that monster earlier. My wife had to go use the ladies room." Lucy quickly noticed that, sure enough, he had the same terrible stench about him as the other men.

"Well, you should have at least told us when you left," Lucy said with a scowl, "Anyhow, we have come to the conclusion that you and the other guests from your hometown know something important about the killer. We will need to take you back to the Fairy Tail guild hall."

As Lucy finished speaking, Lahar emerged from the parlor room with the two other suspects in tow. The expression on these two men's faces had barely changed from the moment that Lucy and Lahar had arrived. Lucy noted this as suspicious. Lahar looked around the hallway and asked, "Where are the rest of my men? I don't see them here, and they wouldn't wander far from an interrogation room."

"I think that your escort left for some fresh air. It seems that our cologne had a profound effect on them. Your messenger said that he had something to attend to at your base and left altogether," Nicholas replied.

Lahar's eyes narrowed and he said, "Very well. I see that Ms. Heartfilia has told you about the situation, so follow me out." Then, Lahar, Lucy, their four suspects, and Mr. Sturm made their way out through the twisting, garishly decorated halls of the house out into the street.

As they left, Lucy heard Mr. Sturm mutter to himself, "I really should fire my interior decorator. Him being blind in one eye and colorblind in the other probably should have tipped me off. 'One eye's good enough,' I said. Bah!"

Lahar walked into the street and looked around, "I don't see my escort anywhere! Mr. Nicholas, did my escort actually say that they were going out for fresh air? In that case, they really should be competent enough to notice that we were leaving. _Where are my men?_" At this point, Lahar realized that something went terribly wrong. His already pale face blanched, his fists clenched, and Lucy felt an up swell of magical power emanate from Lahar, the first that he displayed since his appearance in Magnolia.

Behind him, Nicholas took a glowing lacrima from one of his pockets and looked into it. A huge grin broke out across his face, and Lucy, who happened to be in what had to be a great eavesdropping position, heard him say said quietly to himself, "Excellent! It went perfectly, just as planned! Now that our little chain reaction is set up, I can knock over the first domino," he looked up and said, out loud this time, "Mr. Lahar, if you want to find what you are looking for, I would suggest looking _up_." Lahar looked up, and his eyes widened in shock. The entire escort, six in total, dangled limply in the air, each one of them pinned to the side of the Sturm mansion by a two-pronged spear.

**Reviews please!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi all! I'm glad that you can be able to read my fic. Thank you to all of my followers for reading this story every week, and thanks to xXTrianeraXx for the review.**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is not my property yada yada.**

At the sight of his loyal soldiers' corpses, Lahar let out a cry and sank to his knees, his face a frozen mask of horror. "My, my, is this how a professional soldier of the Magic Counsel is supposed to act in the face of casualties?" Nicholas Sturm asked, still smiling widely. "I mean, it is necessary for a commander to set an example for his men, is it not?" he continued, "Imagine what would happen at the site of a large battle, perhaps against a dangerous rogue wizard, or even one of Zeref's demons."

Lahar composed himself quickly, then turned to Nicholas, his face grim. "What do you have to do with this," he asked quietly. Lahar's fists were clenched tightly enough that his knuckles turned white, and Lucy felt magical power radiate from him, the first such display that she had witnessed while working with him. The magical power coalesced into magical runes that were rapidly forming a box around him and Nicholas.

Nicholas, who must have been standing at least twenty feet away from Lahar by Lucy's estimate, moved suddenly, putting out a sudden burst of speed. In moments, Nicholas was standing right behind Lahar, and, almost lazily, struck Lahar in the head with the back of his hand. The deceptively strong blow sent Lahar sprawling to the ground, his head hitting the cobblestones with a sharp _crack_. Lahar was left conscious, but unable to get to his feet. Its caster dazed and on the ground, Lahar's spell fizzled, dissipating as if it had never been cast. Lucy, Monica, Mr. Sturm, and his two brothers stared on in stunned silence, unable to process what just happened.

"Hmmm, now I can't have you arresting me just yet. That would be somewhat...inconvenient," Nicholas remarked, "To answer your question, yes I was behind this little display. They didn't put up that much of a fight. I have a very fitting saying for them. How does it go, again? Oh yes, 'squealed like pigs.' Also, I did kill that one girl, what's-her-name. You know, I can hardly remember the details of the murder, even though it was only last night. Or was it the night before that? I've always been a creature of the present and future, not the past," At this point, Lucy noticed that the mist around them was thickening rapidly, and she drew out her keys in anticipation. Nicholas continued, "Well, you two did conduct a wonderful investigation right here. Your trail probably would have lead right to me, anyway. You _did_ remember to dust that trapdoor and that vial for prints, right?" He turned to look at Lucy, and said, "Judging by your face, young lady, I'd say no. As much as I would love to turn myself in right now, that isn't really an option." Suddenly, Lucy had a deep sense of foreboding. None of this adds up, she realized. There was no reason for him to confess his crimes at this time. They didn't have sufficient evidence to charge him for the murder, and he _knew_ that. That, combined with what Lucy overheard him saying earlier must mean that...

Lucy's train of thought was cut off suddenly by a familiar, piercing scream, coming from Monica. Tears streamed down her face, plopping down on the ground like big, fat raindrops. "WHY?! Nick, why would you do something like this?" Monica said tearfully, "My husband is kind and gentle and he doesn't talk like that, all dramatic and hammy and cruel. He could never impale six soldiers or forget about some poor murdered girl! What-what's going on? I'm dreaming, aren't I? This is one big nightmare, isn't it? I'm going to wake up right now at home, screaming, and you'll be next to me. You'll kiss me and tell me that everything is going to be alright. Right?" Monica then closed her eyes and sunk to the ground.

At that moment, Lucy heard some kind of wet sucking sound come from Nicholas. His skin started to roil and squirm of its own accord. His form warped and puffed out irregularly, akin to one of those big balloons shaped like cartoon characters used in parades. Every few seconds, a patch of his skin would detach from the muscle and bone beneath and inflate with a wet ripping sound. It became apparent to Lucy that there was a large seam forming all the way down his body. When his skin stopped moving, Nicholas Sturm looked like there was someone a foot taller and a few hundred pounds heavier wearing his skin. Lucy thought back to the book that she read earlier and the deduction that she had made about the connection between the fish people and selkies.

"The reason that I do not act like your husband, Mrs. Sturm," came a gurgling, guttural voice from within Nicholas Sturm's skin, "is that I am not your husband. I've simply borrowed his voice and likeness. For the record, this isn't his actual skin; it's a copy that I made after I devoured him." This information fell on deaf ears, for, at the sight of her husband's skin writhing around, Monica had fainted dead away. Then, the skin burst open, and a hideous creature stepped out.

Up until now, at no point in time did Lucy ever consider the fish people that lived near the Sturms' village would look anything other than typical mermaids, with human upper halves and fish legs. Erza never gave an accurate description of the things during her story about her visit to the village, and the book that Lucy read did not have any illustrations, which was strange for a book of that type. The idea of creatures with fish upper halves and human legs wasn't unknown to her, but she only ever considered that option when making jokes about solutions to the "mermaid problem."

The thing standing before her fit neither of those descriptions. It had arms, like classical mermaids, but it also had feet, like the mermaid's inverted brethren. Neither story mentioned that said limbs were covered in bluish scales, or that the hands and toes were webbed. Each of the thing's digits was tipped with a long claw that was like the blade of a knife. The head closely resembled that of a barracuda, with an under slung jaw filled with large, sharp teeth. Its eyes, too, were that of fish, huge and unblinking, devoid of anything human. The creature did not have much of a neck, and it had a pair of gills placed slightly below the head that opened and closed spasmodically, like that of a fish gasping for air. It had a pale, soft belly, but its abdomen was otherwise like that of a slightly overweight human. Its back was dark, with two small dorsal fins, one in the middle of the back and the other lower down. It had a short, stiff tail that jutted out several inches from its backside, with a large, spiny tailfin attached vertically to the end. To prevent the tailfin from dragging on the ground, the creature was forced to constantly stand in a slightly slouched posture. Fortunately, the fish man was fully clothed in what looked like priestly vestments upon stepping out of the skin.

The first thing the creature did after emerging from its Nicholas Sturm costume was take a vial from its pocket that looked eerily similar to the one that Lucy had in her possession, open it, and down its contents in a single gulp. Immediately, a sheen if mucus fell over its body, and its gills stopped pulsating. It let out a contented, "Ahhh," as if it was a human that just finished drinking a bottle of soda pop. The creature bowed low to Lucy and said, "Greetings Lucy Heartfilia. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Szago Rampanael, a humble priest dedicated to the glorious worship of the ancient dragon Aethros. This thick mist consecrates this battlefield into a sacred arena of the chained lord. I sincerely hope that you don't disappoint him." At that, he made a rapid dash at Lucy, as he had done with Lahar.

Unlike Lahar, Lucy was prepared for the attack, and she managed to dodge Szago's opening strike. Quickly, she pulled a golden key out of her pouch and shouted, "Open! Gate of the Bull! Taurus!" The bull man appeared, and, at Lucy's command, charged at the fish man and swung his great axe. Szago easily sidestepped the swing, and stepped into Taurus's reach, out of range of the axe. Placing one hand on Taurus's abdomen and the other on his throat, the seven foot tall Szago easily lifted the bull man up over his head. He then proceeded to slam the celestial spirit into the ground with enough force to leave a Taurus-shaped crater in the street.

Taurus let out a surprised, "Moo?" and vanished in a flash of golden light.

"Weak," Szago taunted, "If you can't at least put up a sizable show of strength, I really don't see the _point_ in letting you live." He then vanished into the mist. He reappeared right next to Lucy, wielding a two-pronged spear. Just then, with horror, Lucy realized that what the fish man said was, in fact, a terrible pun. Szago, whose spear was mere inches from Lucy's face, lunged at her throat.

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hmmm...I really don't know what to say in my pre-fic commentary. The "later violence" that I mentioned is here, I guess. Oh, and my followers are awesome, as usual. Also, thanks to Aquos for your third review.**

**Disclaimer: Ehhhh...you know the drill.**

Caught totally by surprise and unable to dodge the attack aimed at her, Lucy raised her arms defensively, closed her eyes, and braced for the feeling of the spear piercing her flesh. To her surprise, she felt a _whoosh_ of air as the weapon went above her head, missing by a close enough margin to clip a few stray hairs off the top. Lucy opened her eyes and noticed that she was, in fact, underground. She looked downwards and saw Virgo tunneling beneath her. Within moments they were on the surface, several yards away from where Szago stood. As difficult as his piscine face was to read, Lucy could tell that he was flabbergasted.

"No fair!" Szago exclaimed, "You didn't have time to summon her! You weren't even holding a _key_!"

Virgo bowed her head and said, "My apologies, princess. Since I came without being called, might you...punish me?"

Lucy looked at her and replied, "What? No, you did great. Thanks a lot!" Wearing a mildly disappointed expression, Virgo vanished in a flash of light.

"She's a BDSM maid, too?" Szago said with a leer, still interested by Virgo's sudden appearance, "And she has a way with holes! You _lucky broad_! If I wasn't a priest forced to use Mistwalker magic, I'd learn a little celestial magic, just to summon a servant like that. Hehehehehe." His laugh was surprisingly pleasant, like a bubbling freshwater spring, contrasting horribly with his hideous, leering face and lewd language. Lucy wondered how this vile creature possible be a priest of any sort.

In response to everything this brute was saying, Lucy's face was a mask of disgust. "I hope you never get your hands on any keys. I'd never treat my spirits like how _you_ would," she said angrily, "The fact that I treat all of my spirits with respect and compassion is the reason why they can summon themselves when I'm in need." Without warning, in an uncharacteristic display of rage, Lucy pulled out her Fleuve d'étoiles and snapped it in Szago's direction. The magical whip wrapped around his spear and, with a yank, Lucy removed the weapon from the fish person's clawed grasp.

"A whip! How kinky. Maybe I _will_ enjoy this fight, after all," Szago said as the corners of his perpetually open mouth lifted in an even wider leer. However, his filthy language was suddenly cut short by a barrage of arrows from Sagittarius, whom Lucy had summoned immediately after disarming Szago. He managed to avoid most of them with a burst of great agility, leaping into the air and twisting about, but one of them managed to pierce his large tailfin as he landed. Szago winced in pain and vanished into the mist surrounding the combatants.

Lucy and Sagittarius stood back to back, her whip was the ready and his bow had an arrow nocked and ready to fire at any moment. What they heard next was the sound of a body, probably one of the unfortunate Rune Knights, falling to the ground with a thud. Szago had rearmed himself. They waited for several tense seconds, surrounded by mist and anticipating an attack from any direction. When the fish burst out of the fog wall, like a phantom, he was predictably aiming for Lucy. While he was emerging, Lucy noticed that he had removed the arrow from his tail, which was bleeding profusely. Instinctively, Sagittarius pushed Lucy out of the way to take the thrust himself, but Szago strangely stopped immediately before his attack landed. A pair of fins on his head perked up, like ears, and Lucy soon found that she could hear the sound of...running.

Szago allowed some of the mist to clear, and the runner was revealed. It was Lahar, who had recovered from Szago's attack and was dashing at full tilt down the street in the direction of the Fairy Tail guild hall. "Running away?" Szago mused, "No...fetching assistance, most likely. Well, we can't have that, can we?" He said the last sentence resignedly, with a sigh. Then, he knelt down and launched into chanting:

_Oh, Tyrant of mist_

_I, your humble slave_

_Ask of you_

_In supplication_

_The aid of a greater servant_

_Undine _

At this point in his chant, Sagittarius realized that Szago was casting a powerful spell, and immediately started launching arrows at Szago, who was in point-blank range. Almost lazily, Szago spun his spear and picked the arrows out of the air, despite the short range and great skill of the archer. He barely even paused in his chanting:

_Take these lesser mortals as a sacrifice_

_To strike down the heretics_

_That oppose your might_

_MISTWALKER'S GENESIS_

Finishing his chant with a shout, Szago knocked the bow from Sagittarius's grasp, grabbed the spirit with his free hand, pulled him in close, and bit down savagely on his head. Another celestial spirit vanished in a flash of light. As for the completed spell, the remaining mist instantly cleared away and was siphoned into a very familiar shape. The great water monster formed on the street in between Szago and the fleeing Lahar, and it immediately flowed off in pursuit of him.

"Back when you had more friends around, you actually defeated an undine. To tell the truth, I was surprised, since I was planning to drown you and your knights, so I could face Lucy alone. This time, you don't have as much luck," Szago said triumphantly. Behind him, he didn't notice that Lucy had already recovered from the loss of Sagittarius, and before he could turned around, she had already wrapped him in her magical whip, immobilizing him. Lucy then summoned Ares once more, remembering how effective she had been last time. As soon as the spirit appeared, Lucy's vision darkened, and she swayed on her feet. Summoning so many celestials in one day was taking its toll on her; she didn't know how much longer she would last if Lahar failed to bring help from Fairy Tail.

As before, Ares sent out a wool bomb that started soaking up the watery monster. Lahar took advantage of this to create a much larger lead over the rapidly diminishing monster behind him. Half of the undine was consumed within seconds, but, suddenly, Ares vanished and the flow of wool stopped. This time, it wasn't due to intervention on Szago's part, but because Lucy found that she no longer had enough magical energy to maintain her spirit's presence. Completely drained, Lucy collapsed onto the hard ground.

**Thanks for reading! Review please!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello all! I've been busy with work and school, so it took me a little longer to find time to write. Thanks to all of my followers for reading, and to Aquos for yet another review!**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is property of Hiro Mashima. Not me. Not you.**

Natsu peered down into the crystal clear depths of the pool, mesmerized by the reason why the other prisoners were too terrified to move. In a response to Natsu's earlier movement, one of the...things...that lived in the pool's depths wandered over near his cage. Its body was very much like that of a large fish, long and sinuous, with dark scales and broad, tattered fins attached at seemingly random points along its body. The body was perhaps twelve feet in length, and it undulated hypnotically, allowing it to glide quickly through the water.

The creature's head, on the other hand, was horrifying. It was decidedly non-fishlike, a bulbous mass of flesh just beneath the surface of the water, contrasting jarringly with its sleek body. The width of the head must have been almost half the length of the tail. It was covered with a haphazard array of bulging, unblinking eyes, each the size of Natsu's thumbnail. Interspersed with the eyes were dozens of some of the most hideous mouths produced by nature: that of a lamprey. They were small, only twice the diameter of the eyes, and looked like tubes edged with tiny saw blades. Some of them had scraps of flesh hanging out of them; Natsu shuddered to think about what they ate.

As the creature drifted closer, Natsu froze instinctively. Despite his love of combat, Natsu was somewhat seasick at the moment, and he would be at a disadvantage in the water. Suddenly, one of the prisoners in another cage sighted the monster and had the opposite reaction to Natsu. The man shrieked and began to thrash around, pleading for help. The commotion drew the creatures in from all around, which then proceeded to slam the man's cage with their heads, which broke into pieces under the impact. Just then, an unseen choir, the one that had woken Natsu up earlier, began to chant.

_O elder lord_

_The time of sacrifice has come_

_Your acolytes have chosen_

_A fine wine for you_

One of the creatures used its mouths to latch onto the man, who was hysterical at this point, and it dragged him down into the depths. Waiting for him were two figures that Natsu had not noticed earlier. One was a shapeless form, swathed in translucent chains that lead down deeper into the pool. The other was a fishlike man (or possibly a manlike fish) with the head of a gulper eel and a long tail that spiraled around its body. It occurred to Natsu that the chained figure was almost certainly the subject of the prayers. The bulbous-headed creature brought the man, who had fallen limp by now, to the fish man. It let go of its unfortunate captive, revealing a set of raw, circular wounds where it had grabbed him. The fish man drew a jagged dagger and brandished it. As the volume of the choir reached a crescendo, Natsu found himself desperately wanting to look away, yet he was unable. The fish man at the bottom of the pool drew the knife across the poor captive's throat, releasing a red cloud into the water. The chained figure was immersed in this blood, and began to shake rapidly. The sound of rattling chains resounded throughout the entire pool and beyond.

* * *

Szago glanced back at Lahar's fleeing form, then at Lucy's prone body. "Crap. Right when it was getting interesting, too," he sighed, putting his foot on top of Lucy's head and pressing downward roughly. "Now what am I going to do?" Szago mused to himself, "I can't kill her. Not yet, she wasn't quite disappointing enough for that. If I wait for her to wake up, her friends might arrive. Torture her? Nah, she might not wake up at all. Unless it's tickle torture, but that's lame. I could kidnap her, like her friend. That's definitely a possibility." He then dropped his spear and reached down, picked her up, and slung her easily over one of his shoulders. Just as he was preparing to leap away into the mist, Szago was hit by a burst of brilliant light. The blow knocked Lucy out of his grasp and into the air. Szago tumbled away, bouncing on the hard cobblestone street.

Loke easily caught Lucy as she fell, and gently lowered her to the ground. "Don't worry, Lucy. I'm here for you. I'll protect you," he whispered to her.

"Great. Another one," Szago growled as he lurched to his feet. "It's like the world's worst cosplay contest out here. First there was that cow furry, then a maid, a horse furry, a sheep furry, and now a...douche bag?"

"I'll make you _pay_ for that comment," Loke said quietly, dangerously.

"Well, you _are_ wearing sunglasses on a cloudy day. Class-A douche behavior right there. Also, whispering in an unconscious girl's ear is seriously creepy," Szago remarked.

"Szago!" Loke roared, "You're one to talk." A golden halo of light began to suffuse his body.

"You know my name? You must've been watching the fight, or, rather, watching _her_," Szago said, trying and failing to give Loke a grotesque wink. "From a suitably high vantage point, eh?" he added, noting Lucy's usual attire, "Right...Leo? Considering the zodiac theme naming with that hair and your attitude. Douchenozzle."

Despite knowing that he was most certainly being egged on here, Loke put on a burst of speed, rapidly closing the distance between him and his enemy. Just as he reached Szago, Loke let Regulus emit a burst of bright light. Szago, who didn't have eyelids due to his fishlike face, was immediately blinded. As Szago reeled backwards, trying vainly to cover his exposed eyes, Loke let loose a savage flurry of punches. A right jab at Szago's ribcage, followed by a left hook at his massive jaw. One, two, three, four, five punches in rapid succession connected with the fish man's pale belly. As Szago doubled over in pain, Loke brought the fish's head down onto his celestial knee. A vicious uppercut, with additional blast of light for good measure, sent Szago's head snapping backwards. The fish man fell over onto his back, writhing in pain. By pure, random chance, the thrashing Szago's injured tail swept across towards Loke's face. The celestial quickly stepped back to avoid the flailing strike, but the blood pouring from the wound splattered across Loke's glasses. He paused briefly to remove his glasses and wipe the blood from his face.

Szago took advantage of this opening to launch himself over to where his weapon lay, scooping up the spear as he passed. He whirled around to face Loke, wincing as he did so. The hits that he had taken hurt more than he anticipated, and Szago was beginning to tire. His playful mood from earlier was long gone. He needed to end this fight quickly, before the length of the battle took its toll.

Loke loosed another flash of light, intending to follow it up with an attack far more potent than his last. Unfortunately, the mere fact that Szago was holding his weapon gave the fish man a greater advantage than Loke could imagine. With a spin of the spear, Szago caused the mist to thicken immeasurably, blocking Regulus's light and shrinking Loke's line of sight. Loke looked around him, trying to discern what his foe's next move would be. Suddenly, a chill went down Loke's spine. He couldn't see Lucy from here! Predicting that Szago would go for the defenseless woman, Loke rushed off towards the place where he left Lucy. As she entered his field of vision, Loke was relieved to see that she was unharmed. He sped off in Lucy's direction, eager to be at her side. Right into a spear thrust.

**My, that was the second chapter to end on a spear thrust. I wonder what Freud would say about that. Anyhow, thanks for reading. Reviews, please!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello dear readers! I'm sorry that I've been taking so long in getting new chapters out. Anyhow, here you go! Thanks to all of my followers and to Aquos and Trianera for their reviews.**

**Disclaimer: Ehhh...I don't need this today.**

Lahar panted and wheezed as he careened down one of Magnolia's streets, a living tidal wave in hot pursuit. The small amount of time that Lucy had bought him was immensely helpful, as, initially, he was able to keep a steady gap between him and his pursuer. Unfortunately, the Rune Knight wasn't a particularly athletic person, and he was tiring quickly. Animated water grabbed at his heels, threatening to trip him, and the proximity to the raging creature filled Lahar's ears with a constant roar.

However, there was still hope. Lahar knew that he was drawing close to the Fairy Tail guild hall where he could call upon additional troops and powerful wizards to help him and save Lucy. His feet were throbbing and his lungs felt ready to burst, but he knew that there were only two turns that he had to take before he reached his destination. With concern, he suddenly realized that he had been running through a crowded section of Magnolia for a while now, as various terrified pedestrians joined Lahar in his mad dash to a safe haven. As he turned the second-to-last corner, Lahar risked a look back down the street. Fortunately, there were no people caught up in the flow of the water monster; Lahar realized it was focusing on its prey: him. Innocent people were merely jostled and passed through the current, so they suffered little more than dampness and a few bumps and bruises.

Now, he was on the final stretch. Lahar attempted to put on an extra burst of speed, tantalized by the aspect of rest. Unfortunately, Lahar had exhausted himself by this point, and the undine behind him surged. The water suddenly rose to his knees, and knocked the breathless wizard to the ground with its magical riptide. Lahar squeezed his eyes shut as the water closed around his legs. He held his breath and prepared to be engulfed. Then, the water around his legs turned shockingly cold.

Gray Fullbuster stared suspiciously down at Lahar's prone form, stuck halfway into what appeared to be the world's worst ice sculpture. The ice wizard nudged the Rune Knight's head with his foot, and Lahar opened his eyes.

"What is the meaning of this?" Gray asked coldly.

"Lucy...murderer...fight," Lahar gasped in response.

"What? You left her there alone? You son of a bitch, tell me where this fight is!" Gray exclaimed, outraged. Lahar wasn't sure whether Gray was mad because Lucy was in danger or because she had a dangerous criminal all to herself. With great difficulty, he gasped out directions. When Lahar finished, Gray was off so fast that he left his shirt behind. It took a few minutes for Lahar to realize that he was left frozen in ice up to his waist only two blocks from his destination.

* * *

Meanwhile, Wendy, Happy, and Carla hovered over Magnolia. After Natsu's disappearance, the mist cleared somewhat and they were able to find their way back to town. They flew slowly, searching for Natsu.

"Do you think he went back to the guild hall or back home?" Carla asked.

"If by home, you mean Lucy's home, then no," Happy replied, "We always break in there together. I don't see why he would go back to the guild hall, since he would probably want to see us first. Do you see anything, Wendy?"

"I see Gray. He looks flustered, and he's rushing somewhere, but we could ask him if he's seen Natsu," Wendy replied, pointing in Gray's direction.

"Or we could ask Lucy," Happy said, "Look, there she is, on the ground right between Loke and that big, delicious fish. Wow, that sounded a little dirty." Happy pointed to where he was looking, and, sure enough, the other two saw Lucy lying of the ground in between Loke and a fish. Loke, who was losing ground quickly, was holding on desperately onto the prongs of the weapon in the fish man's hands, trying to prevent it from being driven into his chest.

"_What?!_" Wendy and Carla cried in unison as they saw this.

"Happy, that doesn't sound dirty at all!" Carla added.

Fortunately, Happy's brain realized the danger that Lucy was in faster than his smart-ass mouth did, and he flew down to rescue Lucy, with the other two close behind him. Happy grabbed Lucy and lifted her off of the ground. Szago growled and attempted to swat at Happy with his spear, but Loke used the last of his strength to embed the prongs of the weapon into his own torso to prevent his opponent from swinging it around. As he began to vanish into golden light, a smile came to Loke's lips. Lucy had gotten away safely.

"How is she?" Wendy asked, looking very concerned.

"Heavy, as usual," Happy replied smugly. Carla glared at him. "She's fine," Happy assured Wendy, "She's still breathing, and there aren't any serious wounds. I would guess that she's just tired right now."

From down below, Szago gazed at the newcomers with interest, a swirling ball of water forming on the end of his spear. "Hmm, I don't really like firing at moving targets, but I always love the feeling when I nail a small animal with one of these," he said. He drew his arm back, ready to hurl his attack, when he felt a searing pain in his left shoulder blade, followed by a numb sensation. Looking back over his shoulder, he noticed that there was now a razor-sharp icicle protruding from it. Turning around completely, he came face-to-face with Gray, who had gone from angry to absolutely frothing in the short time it took for him to run to the battlefield.

"So you were the one to destroy my undine this time. You must be pretty fast, since the undine was all the way over by your guild hall when my link to it was severed," Szago said casually, pulling out the icicle.

"Actually, I found a shortcut," Gray replied curtly.

"Anyhow, I'm growing a little impatient here, so, if you please, use your best attack here. Otherwise, you won't stand a chance," Szago said, as Happy, Lucy, Wendy, and Carla landed some distance behind him. He ignored Wendy as she set about healing Lucy, since Gray was the greater threat at the moment.

Immediately, Gray went in to action, and a huge hammer of ice was sent flying at Szago's head. With a single, smooth action, Szago smashed the hammer into small pieces with his spear. "C'mon! I said to use your best attack, not your second-best or your third or your fourth or whatever the hell weak-ass attack that was," Szago taunted.

Gray hesitated, and kept his distance from his opponent. No matter what he says, the ice mage knew that he couldn't afford to give in to taunts. Quickly estimating his opponent's strength, Gray racked his brain for his next move.

**Thank you very much for reading! Reviews, please!**


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